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My Lai massacre
My Lai massacre
Location	Song My village, Sơn Tịnh district of South Vietnam
Target(s)	My Lai 4 hamlet
Date	March 16, 1968
Attack type	Massacre
Deaths	347 to 504
Perpetrator(s)	United States Army (company of the Americal Division) Lt. William Calley (convicted)

The My Lai Massacre (pronunciation (helpinfo), approximately [mi.˧˩˥'lɐːj˧˧]) (Vietnamese: thảm sát Mỹ Lai) was the mass murder of 347 to 504 unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children, conducted by U.S. Army forces on March 16, 1968, in the hamlet of My Lai, during the Vietnam War. Before being killed some of the victims were raped, gang-raped, sodomized, beaten, clubbed, tortured, maimed, or stabbed. Some of the dead bodies were also mutilated.^[]

The incident prompted widespread outrage around the world and reduced US support at home for the war in Vietnam. The massacre is also known as the Son My Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Sơn Mỹ) or sometimes as the Song My Massacre.^[1]

The incident

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Background

Charlie Company of 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, Americal Division, arrived in Vietnam in December 1967. Their first month in Vietnam passed without any direct enemy contact. Nevertheless, by mid-March the company suffered 28 casualties, including five dead, many from the mines and booby-traps laid by the unseen enemy.

During the Tet Offensive of January 1968, attacks were carried out in Quang Ngai by the 48th Battalion of the NLF (National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, commonly referred to as the Viet Cong). U.S. military intelligence formed the view that the 48th Battalion, having retreated, was taking refuge in the village of Song My, in Quang Ngai Province. A number of specific hamlets within that village — designated My Lai 1, 2, 3, and 4 — were suspected of harboring the 48th.

U.S. forces planned a major offensive against those hamlets. Colonel Oran K. Henderson urged his officers to "go in there aggressively, close with the enemy and wipe them out for good."[1] On the eve of the attack, at the Charlie Company briefing, Captain Ernest Medina was asked whether the order included the killing of women and children; those present at the briefing later gave different accounts of Medina's response. Some of the company soldiers, including platoon leaders, later testified that the orders as they understood them were to kill all guerilla and North Vietnamese combatants and "suspects", including women and children, as well as all animals, and burn the village.[2]

The massacre

	Some of the people were trying to get up and run. They couldn't and fell down. This one woman, I remember, she stood up and tried to make it — tried to run — with a small child in her arms. But she didn't make it.
—Charlie Company photographer Ronald Haeberle[3]

The soldiers found no fighters in the village on the morning of March 16. Many suspected there were Viet Cong in the village, hiding underground in the homes of their elderly parents or their wives. The US soldiers, one platoon of which was led by 2Lt William Calley, went in shooting at "suspected enemy position". After the first civilians were killed and wounded by the indiscriminate fire, the soldiers soon began attacking anything that moved, humans and animals alike, with firearms, grenades and bayonets.

The scale of the massacre only spiraled as it progressed, brutality of each killing increasing the next. BBC News described the scene:

Insert the text of the quote here, without quotation marks.

Dozens of people were herded into a ditch and executed with automatic weapons^[4] -- a large group of about 60 to 80 villagers, rounded-up by the 1st Platoon in the center of the village, was executed personally by the platoon leader Calley, and by the soldiers he ordered to shoot. Calley also machinegunned three other large groups of civilians with a weapon taken from a soldier who refused to kill anymore.

After the initial "sweeps" by the 1st and the 2nd Platoon, the 3rd Platoon was sent in to deal with any "remaining resistance." They immediately began killing every still-living human and animal they could find, including shooting the Vietnamese who emerged from their hiding places, and finishing-off the wounded found moaning in the heaps of bodies.

Only one US soldier was injured in My Lai. He shot himself in the foot.

The first reports claimed "128 Vietcong" and 22 civilians were killed in the village during a "fierce fire fight." General William Westmoreland, MACV commander, congratulated the unit on the "outstanding job."

Helicopter rescue

	It looks like a bloodbath down there! What the hell is going on?
—Unidentified helicopter pilot over My Lai[3]

Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr., a 24-year-old helicopter pilot from an aero-scout team, witnessed a large number of dead and dying civilians as they began flying over the village - all of them infants, children, women and old men, with no signs of draft-age men or weapons anywhere. He and his crew witnessed an unarmed passive woman kicked and shot at point-blank range by Captain Medina (Medina later claimed that he thought she had a grenade[4]). The crew made several attempts to radio for help for the wounded. They landed their helicopter by a ditch, which they noted was full of bodies and in which there was movement. Thompson asked a Sergeant he encountered there if the Sergeant could help get the people out of the ditch, and the Sergeant replied that he would "help them out of their misery." Thompson was shocked and confused but took it as some kind of a joke at the time. The helicopter took off then one of the crew said "My God, he's firing into the ditch."

Thompson then saw a group of civilians (again consisting of children, women and old men) at a bunker being approached by ground personnel. He landed and told his crew that if the U.S. soldiers shot at the Vietnamese while he was trying to get them out of the bunker that they were to open fire at these soldiers. Thompson later testified that he spoke with a Lieutenant (identified as Lieutenant Calley) and told him there were women and children in the bunker, and asked if the Lieutenant would help get them out. According to Thompson, "he [the Lieutenant] said the only way to get them out was with a hand grenade." Thompson testified he then told Calley to "just hold your men right where they are, and I'll get the kids out." He found 12-16 people in the bunker, coaxed them out and led them to the helicopter, standing with them while they were flown out in two lots.

Returning to My Lai, he and other air crew noticed several large groups of bodies. Spotting some survivors in the ditch he landed again and one of the crew entered the ditch and returned with a bloodied but apparently unharmed child who was flown to safety. The child was thought to be a boy, but later investigation found that it was a 4 year old girl. Thompson then reported what he had seen to his company commander, Major Watke, using terms such as "murder" and "needless and unnecessary killings." His reports were confirmed by other pilots and air crew.^[5]

In 1998, three former U.S. servicemen who stopped their comrades from killing a number of villagers, significantly reducing casualties at My Lai, were awarded the Soldier's Medal awards in Washington D.C. ^[6] The veterans also contacted with the survivors of My Lai.

Aftermath

	I did not see anyone alive when we left the village.
—Private First Class Robert Maples[5]

Due to the chaotic circumstances, and the Army's decision not to undertake a definitive body count, the precise number of civilians killed at My Lai cannot be stated with certainty. Estimates vary from source to source, with 347 and 504 being the most commonly cited figures. A Vietnamese memorial at the site of the massacre lists 504 names, with ages ranging from one to eighty-two years. A later investigation by the U.S. Army arrived at a considerably lower figure of 347 deaths, the official U.S. estimate.

In the spring of 1972, the camp (at My Lai 2) where the survivors of the My Lai Massacre had been relocated was largely destroyed by ARVN (South Vietnamese) artillery and aerial bombardment. The destruction was officially attributed to "Viet Cong terrorists". However, the truth was revealed by Quaker service workers in the area, through testimony (in May 1972) by Martin Teitel at hearings before the Congressional Subcommittee to Investigate Problems Connected with Refugees and Escapees. In June 1972, Teitel's account of the events was published in the New York Times.

Cover-up and investigations

Initial investigations of the My Lai operation were undertaken by the 11th Light Infantry Brigade's Commanding Officer, Colonel Henderson, under orders from the Americal Division's Assistant Commanding Officer, Brigadier General George H. Young. Henderson interviewed several soldiers involved in the incident, then issued a written report in late April claiming that some 22 civilians were inadvertently killed during the operation. The army at this time was still describing the events at My Lai as a military victory that had resulted in the deaths of 128 enemy combatants.

Six months later, Tom Glen, a 21-year-old soldier of the 11th Light Infantry Brigade, wrote a letter to General Creighton Abrams, the overall commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, accusing the Americal Division (and other entire units of the US military) of routine and pervasive brutality against Vietnamese civilians. The letter was detailed and its contents echoed complaints received from other soldiers.

Colin Powell, then a 31-year-old US Army Major, was charged with investigating the letter, which did not specifically reference My Lai (Glen had limited knowledge of the events there). In his report Powell wrote: "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." Powell's handling of the assignment was later characterized by some observers as "white-washing" the atrocities of My Lai.^[7] In May 2004, Powell, then United States Secretary of State, told CNN's Larry King, "I mean, I was in a unit [the Americal Division] that was responsible for My Lai. I got there after My Lai happened. So, in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they are still to be deplored."^[8]

The carnage at My Lai might have gone unknown to history if not for another soldier, Ron Ridenhour, who, independently of Glen, sent a letter detailing the events at My Lai to President Nixon, the Pentagon, the State Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and numerous members of Congress.^[9] The copies of this letter were sent in March 1969, a full year after the event. Most recipients of Ridenhour's letter ignored it, with the notable exception of Congressman Morris Udall (D-Arizona). Ridenhour learned about the events at My Lai secondhand, by talking to members of Charlie Company while he was still enlisted.

Eventually, Lt Calley was charged with several counts of premeditated murder in September 1969, and 25 other officers and enlisted men were later charged with related crimes. It was another two months before the American public learned about the massacre and trials.

Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, after extensive conversations with Lt Calley, broke the My Lai story on 12 November 1969; on 20 November, Time, Life and Newsweek magazines all covered the story, and CBS televised an interview with Paul Meadlo. The Cleveland Plain Dealer published explicit photographs of dead villagers killed at My Lai. As is evident from comments made in a 1969 telephone conversation between United States National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, revealed recently by the National Security Archive, the photos of the war crime were too shocking for senior officials to stage an effective cover-up. Secretary of Defense Laird is heard to say, "There are so many kids just lying there; these pictures are authentic."

Courts martial

On 17 March, 1970, the United States Army charged 14 officers, including Major General Samuel W. Koster, the Americal Division's commanding officer, with suppressing information related to the incident. Most of those charges were later dropped. Brigade commander Colonel Oran K. Henderson was the only officer who stood trial on charges relating to the coverup; he was acquitted on December 17, 1971.^[10]

After a 10-month-long trial, in which he claimed that he was following orders from his commanding officer, Captain Ernest Medina, Lieutenant William Calley was convicted, on September 10, 1971, of premeditated murder for ordering the shootings. He was initially sentenced to life in prison. Two days later, however, President Richard Nixon made the controversial decision to have Calley released from prison, pending appeal of his sentence. Calley's sentence was later adjusted, so that he would eventually serve 4½ months in a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, during which time he was allowed routine and unrestricted visits by his girlfriend. ^[11]

In a separate trial, Captain Medina denied giving the orders that led to the massacre, and was acquitted of all charges, effectively negating the prosecution's theory of "command responsibility", now referred to as the "Medina standard". Several months after his acquittal, however, Medina admitted that he had suppressed evidence and had lied to Colonel Henderson about the number of civilian deaths.^[12]

Most of the enlisted men who were involved in the events at My Lai had already left military service, and were thus legally exempt from prosecution. In the end, of the 26 men initially charged, Lt. Calley's was the only conviction.

Some have argued that the outcome of the My Lai courts martial was a reversal of the laws of war that were set forth in the Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes Tribunals.^[13] Those tribunals set a historic precedent, establishing the principle that no one may be excused from responsibility for war crimes because they were "following orders". Secretary of the Army Howard Callaway was quoted in the New York Times as stating that Calley's sentence was reduced because Calley honestly believed that what he did was a part of his orders — a rationale that stands in direct contradiction of the standards set in Nuremberg and Tokyo, where German and Japanese soldiers were executed for similar acts.

Effects and analysis

The explosive news of the massacre fueled the outrage of the American peace movement, which demanded the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. It also led more potential draftees to file for conscientious objector status. Those who had always argued against the war felt vindicated; those on the fringes of the movement became more vocal.

The more pivotal shift, however, was in the attitude of the general public toward the war. People who previously had not been interested in the peace/war debates began to analyze the issue more closely. The horrific stories of other soldiers began to be taken more seriously, and other abuses came to light.

Some military observers concluded that My Lai showed the need for more and better volunteers to provide stronger leadership among the troops. As the Vietnam combat dragged on, the number of well-educated and experienced career soldiers on the front lines dropped sharply as casualties and combat rotation took their toll. These observers claimed the absence of the many bright young men who did not participate in the draft due to college attendance or homeland service caused the talent pool for new officers to become very shallow.^[14] They pointed to Calley, a young, unemployed college dropout, as an example of the raw and inexperienced being rushed through officer training.

Those involved

''Calley and Meadlo were firing at the people. They were firing into the hole. I saw Meadlo firing into the hole. ''Q: Well, tell me, what was so remarkable about Meadlo that made you remember him? ''A: He was firing and crying. ''Q: He was pointing his weapon away from you and then you saw tears in his eyes? A: Yes.[6]|

1st Platoon

Some of the soldiers of the 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, included:

• William Calley - lieutenant who led the 1st Platoon, the only person convicted of murder.
• Herbert Carter - platoon tunnel rat, claimed he shot himself in the foot in order to be MEDEVACed out of the village.
• Dennis Conti - testified he initially refused to shoot but later fired some M79 grenade launcher rounds at a group of fleeing people with unknown effect.
• James Dursi - killed a mother and child, refused to kill anyone else even when ordered.
• Ronald Grzesik - team leader, said he followed orders to round-up civilians but refused to execute them.
• Ronald L. Haeberle - company photographer, instrumental in uncovering the massacre.
• Robert Maples - stated to have refused to participate.
• Paul Meadlo - said he was afraid of being shot if he didn't participate. Lost his foot to a land mine the next day, later publicily admitted his part in the massacre.
• David Mitchell - staff sergeant accused by witnesses of shooting people at the ditch site;http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909677,00.html?promoid=googlep pleaded not guilty.
• Varnado Simpson - committed suicide in 1997, citing guilt over several murders committed in My Lai.
• Charles Sledge - radio operator, later prosecution witness.
• Harry Stanley - claimed to have refused to participate.
• Esequiel Torres - shot a number of people with M60 machine gun before he refused to fire again, his weapon taken by Calley.

Other soldiers

Charlie Company, the unit deployed in My Lai 4 on the day of the massacre led by Lt. Calley, was one of at least three that swept My Lai 4.

• Ernest Medina - captain commanding Charlie Company.
• Nicholas Capezza - chief medic in Charlie Company, insisted he saw nothing unusual.

Rescue helicopter

Intervention helicopter's crew consisted of:

• Hugh Thompson, Jr. - warrant officer
• Glenn Andreotta - helicopter crew chief
• Lawrence Colburn - helicopter gunner

30 years later the crew was decorated for their actions at My Lai with Soldier's Medals, the U.S. non-combat heroism awards. Andreotta, who was killed in action shortly after the events at My Lai, received the medal posthumously.

Photographs

Unidentified killed Vietnamese female.	Unidentified killed Vietnamese male.	Unidentified body thrown down a well.	Nicholas Capezza burning a dwelling.

All photos taken by Ronald L. Haeberle.

See also

• Human Rights Record of the United States
• List of military scandals
• Massacre at Huế
• Phoenix Program
• Tiger Force
• Vietnam War Crimes Working Group Files

References

Further reading

External links

• Into the Dark: The My Lai Massacre
• Murder in the name of war - My Lai
• 1969 TIME article
• The My Lai Courts-Martial 1970
• 'Blood and fire' of My Lai remembered 30 years later
• My Lai Peace Park Project

Citizens Commission of Inquiry Colburn Con Son Island prison Ernest Medina Haditha killings Hugh Thompson Indochina War timeline Lawrence Colburn Massacre Quang Ngai Province

Role of United States in the Vietnam War Ronald L. Haeberle Ronald Ridenhour Samuel W. Koster Seymour Hersh Snowjob Son Tinh Varnado Simpson William Calley More results